Sunday 24 April 2011

Harbingers of a Majority, Part 3

More Michigan madness.

As we know, the state of Michigan is so broke that it is shutting down schools for pregnant girls, turning parks into golf clubs, and now making foster kids shop at thrift stores.
Foster children in Michigan would use their state-funded clothing allowance only in thrift stores under a plan suggested by State Senator Bruce Caswell.

Caswell says he wants to make sure that state money set aside to buy clothes for foster children and kids of the working poor is actually used for that purpose.

He says they should get "gift cards" to be used only at Salvation Army, Goodwill or other thrift stores.
"I never had anything new," Caswell says. "I got all the hand-me-downs. And my dad, he did a lot of shopping at the Salvation Army, and his comment was -- and quite frankly it's true -- once you're out of the store and you walk down the street, nobody knows where you bought your clothes."

Gilda Jacobs is CEO of the Michigan League for Human Services. She’s not a fan of the thrift shop gift card idea.
"Honestly, I was flabbergasted," Jacobs says. "I really couldn't believe this. Because I think, gosh, is this where we've gone in this state? I think that there’s the whole issue of dignity. You’re saying to somebody, you don’t deserve to go in and buy a new pair of gym shoes. You know, for a lot of foster kids, they already have so much stacked against them.”

With the Canadian deficit at a historic high and the ReformaTories -- who ran it up, note -- poised to take over the country with a no-holds-barred MAJORITY, really, I mean, how much more money could they blow on jets and jails before October 19, 2015, which is the fixed date of the next election, assuming of course that they adhere to the law this time?

Could they spend enough and cut enough taxes to get us into the kind of economic mess that only sending foster kids to Sally Ann can address?

Oh. Wait. One final point from that story.
Caswell says the gift card idea wouldn’t save the state any money.

Why do it, then?

Because they're bullies and they can.

2 comments:

Michelle Bell said...

I am so incredibly frustrated with the ridiculousness that is going on in my state. I'm also incredibly frustrated that the same people who are being hit so hard by Snyder's power grab are the people who voted him into office. Within my fairly large extended family (the majority of these people making their living within the educational field or the health field), they are staunch GOP voters -- and it slays me that they can't quite seem to connect the dots.

I feel a bit obligated to apologise to both the other states in the union as well as Canada for our ridiculousness.

fern hill said...

No apology at all necessary, Michelle. We feel for you.

And we've got the non-dot-connectors here too. They may be about to create the same situation as you have in Michigan, only for the entire country. Our Tea Party North may have control of House and Senate and we won't be able to do a damn thing about it.

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